Officer Bullied By Fox News Nails GOP During Jan. 6 Commission

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“Democracy is bigger than any one person and any one party” — that’s what Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn had to say as part of his opening statement at Tuesday’s hearing of the House committee investigating the Capitol riot. Ahead of the hearing, Dunn faced public criticism from Fox host Tucker Carlson, who ridiculously characterized the officer as an “angry left-wing political activist,” although the mere fact that Dunn — just like so many other Americans! — has opinions does not in any way disqualify him from having a stake in what has been going on. During Tuesday’s hearing, Dunn adeptly laid out the facts.

As Dunn straightforwardly put it at one point:

‘To the rioters, the insurrectionists, and the terrorists of that day: democracy went on that night and still continues to exist today. Democracy is bigger than any one person and any one party. You all tried to disrupt democracy that day, and you all failed.’

During the riot, Dunn, who is Black, has shared how he repeatedly faced racist harassment from Trump supporters who’d gathered at the Capitol that day. Referring to a particular group of rioters who had gathered in the area of what’s known as the Speaker’s Lobby, Dunn, at an earlier point during the hearing on Tuesday, commented as follows:

‘I told [the rioters] to just leave the Capitol, and in response, they yelled: “No man — this is our house; President Trump invited us here; we’re here to stop the steal — Joe Biden is not the president. Nobody voted for Joe Biden.” I’m a law enforcement officer, and I do my best to keep politics out of my job. But in this circumstance, I responded: “Well, I voted for Joe Biden. Does my vote not count? Am I nobody?” That prompted a torrent of racial epithets.’

Dunn also shared how other Black officers faced similar racist harassment. As Dunn put it:

‘In the days following the attempted insurrection, other Black officers shared with me their own stories of racial abuse on January 6. One officer told me had never, in his entire 40 years of life, been called a “n*gger” to his face, and that streak ended on January 6. Yet another Black officer later told me, he had been confronted by insurrectionists in the Capitol who told him, “Put your gun down, and we’ll show you what kind of n*gger you really are.”.. [Later], I sat down on a bench in the rotunda with a friend of mine who is also a Black Capitol police officer and told him about the racial slurs I endured. I became very emotional and began yelling, “How the blank could something like this happen. Is this America?”‘

House GOP leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Dunn said, “to his great credit, said the following to the House: ‘The violence, destruction, and chaos we saw earlier was unacceptable, un-democratic, and un-American. It was the saddest day I’ve ever had serving in this institution.'” Dunn added that McCarthy “was absolutely right” and added as follows: “We can never again allow democracy to be put in peril as it was on January 6.”

Check out some of Dunn’s comments in the footage below:

Watch the full hearing below: